French President Emmanuel Macron says he has spoken on the phone with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev about a new method to restart talks within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk group.
OSCE Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US – is tasked with spearheading the negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Macron said work would start Friday evening (Oct. 2), as he upped his efforts to broker mediation. He also reiterated his call for a ceasefire.
Armenian authorities welcomed an earlier call from the OSCE Minsk Group to return to the negotiating table.
“We welcome the fact that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, at the leadership level, have strongly condemned the use of force in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. Armenia has repeatedly refused and condemned the use or threat of use of force by Azerbaijan, and the direct involvement of Turkey in hostilities against Armenia and Artsakh [Karabakh],” reads a statement from Armenia’s Foreign Ministry. “The joint aggressive actions of Azerbaijan and Turkey and the involvement of foreign terrorist militants deteriorate regional security and peace. We will continue to ultimately oppose this aggression against Karabakh, and are ready to work with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries to restore the ceasefire agreements of 1994-1995.”
Fighting began on September 27 when Azerbaijan launched an attack along the entire Line of Contact with Nagorno-Karabakh. The unprecedented involvement of Turkey has further intensified the fighting, raising fears of a full-scale regional war.
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